The American Bar Association's Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has put out a request for proposals for a process by which it can better police the postgraduate employment data that law schools release.

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What's being said

I worked in a law school career services office for five years and it was always difficult to track down the data from a certain percentage of our graduates. Some felt that it was none of our business, some were frustrated with the school and thougth that witholding information was a way to flip us the bird, some felt that we had been of no assistance and a fair number just never got around to responding. Our public interest students were often frustrated because their job search tended to last longer than the private sector folks', and they felt that their stats didn't matter. Particularly for students who are not inclined to share their employment information, the law school's only argument is that it may 'help in the rankings' if the graduates report - and many of them could care less.

I don't understand why the ABA and other organizations expect the law schools to bear sole responsibility for data collection, as if it's simply a lack of will that prevents law school administrators from collecting complete and accurate information. Perhaps a centralized reporting system makes more sense, and perhaps making the reporting part of a bar requirement or getting the ABA to collect the data would lead to better results.

jurisdebtor

Feb 25, 2013

"Unlike admissions data, there is no centralized source of law graduate jobs dataâwhich the schools themselves sometimes struggle to compile. So the ABA is seeking guidance from experts. The organization last year adopted more detailed postgraduate jobs reporting requirements, which has complicated the reporting process for law schools and made oversight tougher."

Fine, I will concede that point, but why is it that we are in 2013, and the ABA is just now looking into correcting this problem? For an organization that has rules about how many hours a law student can work during the summer, one would assume that it would have set up some system to record, track, and possibly investigate employment data--a/k/a, the biggest selling point for law schools.

exposing the law school scam

Feb 22, 2013

THE ABA IS CONTROLLED BY THE LAW SCHOOLS. DO NOT FALL FOR THIS PROPAGANDA. THEY ARE AFTER YOUR STUDENT LOANS. THEY WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE IF YOU FALL FOR THIS PROPAGANDA. I KNOW--THEY RUINED MINE.